Tiny, the Stone Giant Guide by Rikimaru the Assassin

Tiny is made to gank and support. He can deal massive damage with his combo Avalanche + Toss alone. With a stun and a fun skill in which both keeps the enemy from escaping, Tiny is a great tool in battles and gangbangs.

Tiny is best played in a dual lane. Partnering with Lina or Leshrac is one of the deadliest dual lanes ever in the game. With Avalanche and chaining it with LSA/ Split Earth, the enemy will just stand still, while they would just notice their life crawling as fast as your internet. In a dual lane, there is no problem if you want to gank on another lane. Tiny is just a gank-star. You could gank from as early as levels 5+.

Later on he has an added role. A tank. Because of his high strength growth and how dangerous he is because of the massive damage he could do to a team, he would most likely be a main focus of the opposing team. With all the nuisance he could give to the enemies, heâ€™s one of the best tanks there is.Table of Contents

Mechanics: It deals four sets of damage, instead of being instant pure damage like LSA and the likes.Strategics: Itâ€™s pretty much one of the lamest easiest to target AoE skills. Since it deals a flurry of damages in 2 seconds. Enemies who enter it in the duration will still be stunned. See how lame this skill is.
You use Avalanche as your ganking/ stunning/ supporting/ initiating skill. Any stun and damage skill is worth a starting skill, and Avalanche is for sure a very helpful tool for you and your team.

Toss

Mechanics: The target tossed is considered disabled for 2 seconds, though he may still be attacked or affected by all types of damage he can receive while in normal state. DK in Dragon From cannot be tossed.Strategics: You use it as a conjunction with your Avalanche as a powerful gank/ damage/ killing combo. Toss also keeps to opponent in place so Toss is also another support/ ganking/ initiating skill like Avalanche. Toss is a great way to let your creativity flow out. How? Read on.

Craggy Exterior

Mechanics: It already has a chance to trigger when an attack animation begins. It is considered able to “stack” together with Butterfly, though I donâ€™t know wtf that info is for in this guide.Strategics: This is better leveled in mid-late game simply because Craggy Exterior triggers much more often in these stages because enemies are more on attacking you physically. Itâ€™s even better not leveled anymore (Until your last levels) when you face a team which doesnâ€™t make use of melee carry heroes.

Grow!

Mechanics: Illusions doesnâ€™t benefit from this, which means they will remain in the size of a tiny without Grow.Strategics: Itâ€™s better leveled when you have maxed Avalanche and Toss, because you can deal more deadly hits while the enemy is standing still from your combo.

++++++++GS2.
++++++++

Skill Build

My one and only build.Level 1

- Avalanche

Level 2

- Toss

Level 3

- Avalanche

Level 4

- Toss

Level 5

- Avalanche

Level 6

- Toss

Level 7

- Avalanche

Level 8

- Toss

Level 9

â€“ Grow!

Level 10

â€“ Attribute Bonus/ Craggy Exterior

Level 11

â€“ Grow!

Level 12

- Attribute Bonus/ Craggy Exterior

Level 13

- Attribute Bonus/ Craggy Exterior

Level 14

- Attribute Bonus/ Craggy Exterior

Level 15

- Attribute Bonus

Level 16

â€“ Grow!

Level 17

- Attribute Bonus/ Craggy Exterior

Level 18

- Attribute Bonus/ Craggy Exterior

Level 19

- Attribute Bonus/ Craggy Exterior

Level 20

- Attribute Bonus/ Craggy Exterior

Level 21

- Attribute Bonus

Level 22

- Attribute Bonus

Level 23

- Attribute Bonus

Level 24

- Attribute Bonus

Level 25

- Attribute Bonus

Generally Avalanche and Toss are to be maxed first because they are the key skills of Tiny. Almost everyone knows that, even in pubs.

Grow is learnt at level 9 because that is the period where Avalanche and Toss are maxed, and that is the perfect time to level grow. People usually get Grow at level 6, I donâ€™t think thatâ€™s anywhere near bad. The reason why my build maxes the two skills first is that they give you more kills earlier

Getting Craggy Exterior is situational. The factor you should give attention to is if the enemies have about 1-2 melee DPS heroes and the time when they get strong. If you think that theyâ€™re already strong in early mid, get it earlier. However, when there are no melee DPS heroes in the enemy team at all, donâ€™t get Craggy Exterior other than your last few levels.

++++++++GS3.
++++++++

Item Build

Starting Items

â€“ Most of the time youâ€™ll be getting tangos and branches for early game survival.Boots of Speed

and

2 Bracers/ Nulls

are no-brainers. You need them for better survival and better ganking/ chasing capabilities.Empty Bottle

is the stationary item of all gankers, and bottle is your main source of regeneration. It helps you cast more Avalanches/Tosses. Runes are also stepping stones to victory, and using them at the right time is a must.Blink Dagger

is a MUST for every tank/ initiator. Tiny has very strong but melee ranged AoE spells, and getting Blink Dagger makes it easier for you to get near them, without any problems at all. Dagger is also abusable in many ways. You can use it to chase, escape and almost every kind of abuse you can do.

++++++++

Extension Items

Boots of Travel

Turning BoS into BoT is a no-brainer. There should be no conflict between Power Treads and BoT simply because BoT owns Treads for Tiny. Tiny doesn’t attack fast. He needs to move fast, and BoT is just what makes Tiny faster.

Shivaâ€™s Guard

Shivaâ€™s Guard gives you three benefits which you NEED. First, it gives you armor, which you donâ€™t have that much. It also gives you more tanking capabilities. Second, it gives you a great amount of mana so you can spam your spells more. Third, it gives you a skill which lets you and your team chase enemies, and also another conjunction after Blink+Ava-toss.

Heart of Tarrasque

Every tank has HoT as an extension item. It gives you more hp and regeneration, plus a bit of damage. Both the hp and damage from HoT are welcome so generally you would also want to get Heart if youâ€™re really farming good.

++++++++

Further Item DiscussionItems in green are optional.
Items in red are bad.

Hood of Defiance

â€“ Itâ€™s a great tanking item. Your armor is low, and the magic reduction serves as your deduction from a lot of spells. Get it if you want to, itâ€™s worth getting in several games you may encounter.

Linkenâ€™s Sphere â€“ With the large buff in the 6.50 versions, Linken’s Sphere is a possible item for Tiny. It can block some harmful spells and you can block two spells within less than 20 seconds. The stats it gives are also beneficial.Sheepstick

â€“ Of course this is welcome. It gives you mana and a disable, incase your team lacks or needs another disable. The reason why this didnâ€™t enter my core or even extension is because Tiny isnâ€™t pure support and he also has to focus on his initiating/ ganking power.Cuirass

â€“ Quite optional because other than the armor, you get attack speed which is not your primary source of damage because you use your spells more than you attack. Cuirass is still worth a try to those who want Tank-DPS hybrids.IAS Items

â€“ Also optional because we want to focus more on other aspects than Tinyâ€™s DPS capabilities.DPS Items

â€“ No. Tiny has bad attack speed with Grow and getting DPS + IAS Items would make me feel like youâ€™re focusing more on Tinyâ€™s DPS capabilities, which is the focus of most guides here in DP. Sorry never my taste in my whole life.Manta Style

â€“ I have no idea why you would like to get this. Of course you get something to chase the enemy from Diffusal Bladeâ€™s Purge and additional hp but the real reason is you never get all the juice from this item, which is, your images canâ€™t benefit from grow.

++++++++GS4.
++++++++

Techniques

BASIC: Animation Cancelling

You wouldnâ€™t want to waste time after casting AT. You need to attack the enemy the exact time the enemy gets tossed so you can deliver at least 2 hits while the enemy is being tossed. All you have to to quickly right click on the tossed enemy once you click toss so there wonâ€™t be a delay.BASIC: Chaining two Stuns

In a lane, chaining Avalanche with another stun is a very dangerous combo. Be sure to do this often to harass enemies massively.The AT

AT is Avalanche + Toss. You will be using this most of the time when ganking and killing. You can do this anytime and most of the time be sure you can kill the enemy so you can get more exp and gold. An ideal way is Avalanche, then heal with Bottle then already use Toss as a conjunction to AT them to death.Channel-Crusher

You have two disables. Use them to cancel an enemy channeling spell so that they would have their spell useless, and you can then proceed to actually killing them.Fog-AT-Them

Simply put, you would hide in the fog of war (Forest, behind them, invisibility etc.) then execute AT. This is the most ideal way to score kills in the early stages of the game.Blink-AT-Them

Before using AT, blink at them to easily execute AT. Blinking in will also give you a more isolated place, giving a much higher percentage to score a toss which will toss your desired target as well.Jungle-AT-Them

It may take you a max of 2+ minutes to do this, but if youâ€™re suspecting, you can go in the forest and check out the different camps. If you see an enemy hero neutral creeping, quickly AT them. If Blink is needed, np go Blink-AT-Them.More about Tossing

Blink was also made to serve another purpose. To isolate you and your enemy from other units. Toss says it targets random units within the AoE and they get tossed to a max of i.e., 1000 units away at level 4. Actually Tiny will grab the nearest unit in the AoE. Only will the skill pick random units when all the distances of the units in the AoE from Tiny are exactly the same.

Pretty much I spelled the Avalanche-Toss as AT because Avalanche serves as an initiator for Toss in lanes, where there are creeps. Hoping that Avalanche kills all enemy creeps, Toss will then be surely targeting your desired hero.Other Uses of Toss

Toss also damages wards and towers. For invisible wards, simply detect them, get something and toss it to the ward, so it gets destroyed. In some cases (Correct me if Iâ€™m wrong), tossing a unit to an enemy while a ward IS in the AoE where the unit will be tossed means the ward will also be affected, and will die. This also means Toss will damage artificial wards like Serpent Wards and etc. Gg Veno/ Rhasta.

The damage that toss deals to wards and towers is only the landing damage. In destroying towers, simply Toss a unit to another unit but be sure that in clicking the target, the tower is also included. This damages both the one you threw, the target (If enemy) and the tower, which can give you the tower kill, plus some minute damage output.Advanced Tossing

Again, using Blink is a need for a nuisance-free Toss.

You quite know that you can toss enemies anywhere. Think outside the box. Instead of just tossing them in their place, make creativity out of toss.

Here are steps for

Reversed Toss

, which returns your enemy to where you started whacking them.

1. Isolate yourself to the enemy, and make sure he is the one to be tossed.
2. You may ask your ally to stand far behind you/ near the tower and toss the enemy to your ally so they will come back and die. If youâ€™re cool like me, time the coming of the creeps near the tower, Avalanche the enemy, then eventually toss them into the creeps which gives just the same output.
Example can be found here (Most of them).Inversed Toss

â€“ Instead of you tossing an enemy hero to an ally hero, you would toss an ally hero to an enemy hero. This is most of the time done for chasing purposes.Ward Trap-tossing

- I said earlier that tossing something into wards can completely own them, but now letâ€™s think inverse. Lets think that our serpent wards are ally wards. Go isolate yourself to the enemy, then throw them into the wards. Better you, get a hero with Blink, let them get trapped with wards, toss your enemy into the hero in the wards, and the hero will just blink out. Gg.
Example can be found here (Scene starting 2:27).Initia-Toss

â€“ An outgrowth of Inversed Toss, Tiny throws off an ally of yours which is an initiator, and watch the enemies see a flying AoE stunner. This technique is done so that enemies would be damaged, plus the initiators would get to use their ultis without using Blink Dagger and they can travel at a longer range than Blink (Which is just 700).
An outgrowth of this technique is

Toss + Suicide

. Techies would love to get tossed. Not only will you deal damage to the enemies, but Techies can actually kill the enemies with suicide. Trust me, this can work, though I donâ€™t know if this would ever work in serious games.
Example of Toss + Suicide found here.Tosswap

â€“ This is basically the same as nether swap, but weâ€™re going to use Tiny. You first blink into an enemy, then toss it into your allies. This is quite much dangerous because your enemies are grouped together, and you may die. Using Avalanche and running back to your team may sound like a plan.
Example can be found here (Scene starting 0:42).

Saving allies with Toss is generally easy. You just toss them into another ally unit, much farther from the enemies chasing them. You can also do this to an enemy, tossing the closer enemy to an enemy farther from you/ your ally to save you/ your ally.
Example can be found here, here and here (Scene starting 2:08).

++++++++GS5.
++++++++

General Strategy

Laning.

Again, the best way to contribute at the start is by having a partner with you. Tiny has great supporting capabilities, and it should be given importance. Laning with a partner who can also stun is awesome. Tiny can control lanes peacefully. Once an enemy tries to harass you, get near them and let them get a dose of your Avalanche, plus whatever conjunction you would like to add.

Hide in the fog of war, and let your ally get close to the enemy/s. Once they are starting the fight, Fog-AT-Them, and start beating your enemies to death. If you and your partner succeeds in doing a combo, any of you should already get a kill.Ganking.

Practically you can already do this from about level 9 where you have the confidence to kill your target. Giving your lane partner a solo lane, ganking in another lane is double beneficial, giving benefits to both you and your partner. Now like how you kill in your own lane, call your lane ally to charge the enemy and get them busy while you get near them and eventually get them killed.Getting Ganked.

You have two spells which can let you escape. Simply done, you can Avalanche the enemies ganking you out of the way. If they are chasing you already, go toss an enemy (If he is near you) to the enemy farther away, and let them cry out â€˜wtfâ€™.Farming.

You have 2 AoE damagers what do you expect? Itâ€™s easy to own a normal creep wave. The more the merrier right? In less than 3 seconds you can counter a push and also at the same time heap tons of gold from it. Farming with Tiny should be average because farming with Tiny is essential to get your tanking capabilities stronger and fast, because when your enemy carries outfarm you, they will own you like np.Pushing.

Tiny is a possible pusher. How fast a hero farms is how fast he pushes. It just means that Tiny can push fast because he can farm fast. Always try to kill the enemy towers with the toss technique I said to you previously, and your on your way for massive gold.Team Battles.

There is a monotony in your job. All you do is Blink-AT-Them, initiate, tank, then if you survive, chase them with Blink. You may also have Shiva’s Guard. You have a path-reversal skill, a stun skill, and a possible slow skill. All are practically possible chasing skills, so use them how the hell you want to use them.Runing.

More about runes here.
Again, runes are stepping stones in ganking, and Tiny should get runes to help him gank better. Every rune give itâ€™s own benefit to any hero. Letâ€™s list the runes. Everything except the regeneration rune needs strategy.

Illusion

â€“ You either a. Leave it to your current lane to make your enemies think that youâ€™re still there while youâ€™re ganking, b. Leave it somewhere in the forest to make it act like an Observer Ward for the rest of its duration or c. Tank the illusion while farming on a camp or two so you wonâ€™t receive much damage.

Haste

â€“ Go gank asap because you can kill with no problem with max movespeed. Donâ€™t go rambo though.

Invisibility

â€“ Like Haste, go to an enemy, then appear with a dose of your AT.

Double Damage

â€“ Go gank again, because your damage is superb they would most likely die in your AT + 2 hits.Warding.

More about Warding here.Stone Guant isnâ€™t the best ward b*tch but you can try. Since youâ€™ll go going to forest and rivers to gank in other lanes, you might as well post some wards in the process. For effective warding, click here.

++++++++GS6.
++++++++

Best Allies

Lina/ Leshrac

As I have said again and again, Lina/ Leshrac are the best choices for chaining stuns. In a dual lane, I assure you generally hard face-kicking, numerous fountain trips for the enemies np.

Initiators

Heroes like ES/ Magnus want to get near the enemies. Why not? All they need to do is call Tiny, and he will throw them into a dozen of heroes, then they can deal massive AoE damage.

Techies

An outgrowth from initiators, Techies is also another initiator but this time with another case. He would most likely kill both himself and the enemies after getting tossed and doing Suicide.

Shadow Shaman/ Crystal Maiden

They are different from other initiators because in this case, the enemies get thrown to them or their units to achieve maximum effect. I wonder if enemies wonâ€™t cry out loud when they get Tossed near their opponent tower, while they get disabled and blasted with massive elements of damage. Pudge and others are also acceptable.

++++++++GS7.
++++++++

Worst Enemies

Doom Bringer

Tiny as a tank is vulnerable to all offenses the enemies could give, and a team with Doom Bringer is most likely going to have you doomed, because youâ€™re just one of the best tanks there is.

Slardar

You already have low armor, and lowering it more means youâ€™ll receive a massive damage increase, which should just not happen.

Nerubian Assassin

Early game you canâ€™t harass him because he is the king of early game harassers, and he truly makes a statement even when facing against Tiny.

++++++++GS8.
++++++++

Conclusion and Final Statement

Tiny is one of the best competitive tanks out there. With the ability to mass stun a group of enemies easily, Tiny’s supporting and initiating capabilities are very high. Tiny is also very fun to use, because Toss makes you think creatively. You can toss anything anywhere, and there is no limitation to imagination.

36 Comments so far ↓

I think that you get a arcane ring, power treats,assault and a mask of madness is better

Dec
22

4:01
AM

Dymez

This guide was great! My brother follow each steps & he become completely UNSTOPPABLE! But one thing is i become his Best Allies but i use his Worst Enemy, i use Lucifer when we are on same team…

Jan
17

10:02
AM

haze

with tiny high base dmg u can practically get last hit on creeps very easily, i suggest item build of arcane ring and then go hyperstones and then u can turn one of the hyperstone to assault… blink dagger is also leet!!

Feb
20

12:17
PM

unknown

u can also use SnY for many uses… BoT for tele & gank… assault for atkspd and armor…bottle and courier item combo is the best… spam even get hit then use the bottle… it restores hp and mana at d same tym…i think shiva and dagger combo can also be used to slow enemies…

Mar
8

3:33
PM

sam

doesnt TA do more dmg?

Apr
23

11:38
AM

Rascal

what’s that funny fucking tiny its not gd such as Troll, Luna, Axe, Dragon Knight, and nerbian Assian, ETC

Apr
29

4:31
AM

Rin

Lol buddy Rascal , if u mean tiny sucks , well u sucks in tiny :P

May
21

5:33
AM

Killer

I think TA is better..
Coz tossed unit will hit by more bombard(avalanche)

Jun
13

7:20
PM

Bintaro Jakarta

Nope. AT is Better, coz the get not the full 300 dmg in 1 stone but from 4 stones, so they get 300 dmg, then tossed which is=360(300 toss dmg,60 being tossed dmg)then get more stones!=+300=Total 0f 960 Dmg!!!!

Jul
8

11:54
PM

TIMmy

AT is better cos when u avalenche him, he sure will stun which gives u time to attack then due to his life he sure run, thats when u toss:)and yur opponent dies:))

Jul
11

4:29
AM

nick

theres no need for tiny guide.. lol

blink, stun+ toss = ur main ganking skills..

items? arcane,hyperstones.. and the rest according to gameplay..

btw i’ve seen tiny carrying dagon around.. its not very useful, but if its used properly, its ownage.. but i wouldnt reccommend it

i wish you left a link on how to be better at reversed toss and inverted toss…kinda like a video..^_^ good job

Nov
20

12:01
AM

o.0

nah ppl AT overall does more damage as shows the following:
300 damage from the initial avalance and then immediately launch a toss into the rocks causing an addition 360 damage from toss.
the damage counter is reset when the target is in midair resulting in another 300 damage from avalanche so though simple math 300+360+300= 960
math pwnt >>
if u dont believe try on neutral creeps (ursa,centaur,satyr…)

Nov
27

3:00
AM

TIPAKLONG_JOMAR

Lol why HOt
try to have
SNY and Assault
for the speed and damage

Dec
7

12:17
AM

o.0 sucks

ur math fucking fails hard. how is 300+360+300 math pwnt? thats fucking basic 1st grade math. the only pwn u did was urself. btw you forgot natural spell reduction so its not so close to 960dmg dumbass

Dec
13

2:21
AM

hairless void

i would buy the following:
BoT
arcane ring
assault
hearts
town scroll portal…maybe?
buckler
My build as you can see is concentrating on dps and armour so i would usually ask a friend to use sven to increase my armour for tanking with my grow.